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Audio Post: Scary Soundscapes
for Halloween Kills
By Patrick Birk
Michael Myers is back in the new film Halloween Kills, directed by David Gordon Green, who also helmed the 2018 Halloween film. The latest addition to the film franchise, which began with director John Carpenter’s original scare-fest in 1978, once again stars Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode. Carpenter had a hand in this version as well, as he provided the score for Halloween Kills.
The film’s supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer/sound designer Rich Bologna and his team worked out of Warner Bros.’ Stage A in New York City. He was kind enough to talk to us about how he sonically designed Michael Myers to embody fear itself... and more.
In a horror film like Halloween Kills, how do you create tension in both the sound design and in the mix?
Well, tension is kind of the modus operandi with horror films, right? It's just a constant procession of tension or release. It’s a bit of a trope of horror films, but it's very effective. Many times, we achieve the tension by not adding too much sound, and when the time is right, introducing the sound as a release. There is a good amount of that in this film, although I would say that Michael Myers' presence is usually what drives our sound design and music — he's the focal point of terror.
The fun challenge for us is that Michael Myers doesn't speak; he just breathes, walks and slashes. So with those three ingredients, the challenge is making that interesting and compelling and terrifying. That was the fun we had, knowing those were the parameters of what we had to work with… and making those sounds as scary, punchy and well-designed as we could.
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